On 22
nd April NCLA played host to Tishani Doshi
and Priscila Uppal. Two poets whose work takes in a wealth of inspirations-
from Doshi’s dancing to Uppal’s work as Canada’s official Olympic poet in
residence.
The evening opened with a reading of Uppal’s work. She
ignited the audiences interest with poems in which she variously wrestled with
Plato, ate yams with Usain Bolt and fenced with Don Quixote. What soon became
noticeable was that however eclectic her influences were for each poem they all ended with a
final line of great impact. They were variously moving, unsettling and inspiring. As Bill
Herbert, introducing the poets for the evening quoted, Uppal is ‘bound to get
in trouble in every political system in the world’.
Tishani Doshi read next, interspersing her poems with
anecdotes about the mysterious processes underpinning their development. I was
struck by the penetrating and intoxicating rhythm in which she read.
Poems
about ‘blue-skinned gods and magical flutes’, ‘cypress trees and hunts for
treasure’ and ‘Madras temple priests’ whirled past in an exhilarating maelstrom
of sensations and images. Afterwards questions to the two poets were invited. One
audience member perhaps summed up the shared response of the audience, simply saying- ‘I’m
stunned.’
The links between dance, athleticism and poetry were
discussed, with Uppal commenting that ‘both athletes and poets process pain for
a living.’ The ways in which a poet can remain productive but inspired were
also considered. Both poets agreed that the one piece of solid advice a young
Uppal had been given- ‘never write about your grandmother’ had to various
degrees been broken by both. An innovative approach and a disregard for
convention being perhaps two reasons this event was so mesmerising.
